TODAY: Rally to teach kids about dangers of drugs

Wednesday

ELLWOOD CITY - Community awareness and faith will be among the topics discussed Friday at a drug awareness rally at Christian and Missionary Alliance Church, 701 Jefferson Ave., Ellwood City.

Phil Barner, pastor of Christian and Missionary Alliance Church, said the 7 p.m. event will reach out to children as well as parents who might be struggling with ways to teach their children about drugs or help those who are using drugs.

"We are offering a message of hope, that there is an answer," Barner said. "The greatest help is when people find a way that Jesus Christ can touch their lives."

The Rev. Mike Wimer, guest speaker at the rally and a former drug user, experienced such a life-saving encounter. He said that while attending a motorcycle rally, he met a group of Christian bikers who led him to the Pittsburgh chapter of the Sons of God Motorcycle Club.

Wimer said the club helped him through his recovery process. After serving as an assistant pastor at Evangelist Temple Church in New Castle and as president of Messiah's Disciples Motorcycle Ministries, he incorporated the River of Life Christian Outreach Ministry in Wampum.

He now warns people about the dangers of addiction.

"People are more important than material things, and life is more important than addiction," Wimer said. "Any addiction will consume your life completely."

Barner said the rally will also include a demonstration by Ellwood City police officer Michael McBride and police dog, Jozek.

McBride said his demonstration will show attendees how Jozek locates drugs and how he performs article searches for items with human scent. Both he and Wimer will stress the dangers of drugs to the children present.

"(Children) face a lot of peer pressure in fifth through seventh grade," McBride said. "We like to get to them before that happens."

Wimer said he hopes to give young people resources and ways was to get out of addiction.

"Young people are the future of our country," he said. "If we refuse to help them, where does that leave us?"

McBride said having a police dog in Ellwood City is an insurmountable deterrent for drugs and crime in the community. He said the department has made four arrests where Jozek found drugs that officers would not have found. One arrest took a substantial amount of drugs off the streets, McBride said.